The 20-Year Poetry Project
What happens when you dedicate two decades to one book and one idea? I’m about to find out.
I recently launched something that feels less like a project and more like a life path:
writing 3,800 poems—yes, you read that right—over the next 20 years, all sourced from a single book: Bulfinch’s Mythology.
Every poem will be a found poem, pieced together from the words on just one page at a time, with ten distinct poems crafted from each page’s fragments.
Why?
Because I believe in long-term creative devotion. Because I want to explore what happens when you dig deeper instead of wider. Because poetry, for me, isn’t just a form—it’s a practice of living, of seeing, of reconstructing meaning from what already exists.
This isn’t about rushing to publish. It’s about building a poetic legacy—one volume at a time. 76 volumes, to be exact. Each collection shaped by creative limitations, emerging technologies, and a commitment to preservation over erasure.
This is my living thesis on remixing history while honoring it. And I’ll be documenting the whole thing, from notebooks to newsletter, so you can follow along and even build your own legacy beside me.
Try this:
Choose one book you already own.
Pick a random page.
Circle 20 words.
Use only those to write something new.
Want to see how it all began?
Start with my first collection, Pen, Paper, & Heart Vol. 00: Life-Preservers
or follow the journey through my newsletter.
